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 Boox
for Us combined the expertise of libraries and youth workers. In 1998 it
received £17,500 from the National Year of Reading to set up the project,
run by the reader development agency Well Worth Reading (now The Reading
Agency) and the National Youth Agency. It aimed to tackle social exclusion
through reading, reaching young people who would be unlikely to find their
own way to libraries.
Six projects which worked with teenagers were given £500 each plus
advice on developing their activities. The results included visits from
writers, storytellers and poets; the creation of individual reading profiles;
contributions to Boox magazine, which publishes reviews by young
people for young people; and building lists of books to help youngsters
through difficult times. A resource pack, the Reading Kit, was
also produced - see below.
Read an article about the growth of YouthBoox from Read
On, Winter 2004
Boox magazine is a national book review magazine produced by the Reading
Agency and partner library authorities. All the reviews and articles and
reading games are created and written by young people and are sourced
from students at secondary schools, youth groups and teenage reading groups
across the UK. It allows young people to express themselves and develop
their writing skills. It involves them in the production of a "real"
magazine that is used in schools and public libraries across the country
and it increased their knowledge of the publishing world. The contributors
get a real sense of achievement at seeing themselves in print. Over 50,000
copies of Boox are produced each year.
www.boox.org.uk
Scotswood Attendance Project
Steve O'Gara, teacher and youth worker, worked to ease 12 to 16-year-old
chronic non-attenders and school phobics back into the classroom. The
project worked with West Gate Community College, the local 11 - 18 comprehensive,
and the educational welfare and psychology services to provide an alternative
curriculum covering a range of vocational and physical activities with
the core skills of literacy and numeracy at its heart.
In an area of rife unemployment, poverty, hopelessness and aggression,
O'Gara wanted to put his charges on track to a more hopeful future. During
the two years he managed the project, there was full attendance from the
pupils.
George Oliver, one of O'Gara's 14-year-olds, when asked what he liked
best about attending the Scotswood centre said: "Reading's the best thing,
because I couldn't read when I came." There are storytelling and poetry
sessions. Shawn Armstrong, 14, wrote in the teenage magazine Boox
about WH Auden's Funeral Blues: "The poem calms you down and makes you
realise how important your friends and family are."
Litherland's Library
Litherland is a Merseyside docklands district. More than a quarter of
its men are unemployed. For teenagers too young for the pubs, the places
to hang out had included the area outside the library with dares to run
in to hurl food, drink and abuse - and even to set fire to a handful of
books. With no security guard, Sefton's Library managers put together
a plan to invite the teenagers into the library instead.
For the first few weeks the kids were riotous. However, a new library
supervisor, Mark Ramsden, bought teenage magazines and football fanzines.
A computer with Internet access was soon supplemented by a second. The
teenage bookshelves were restocked with horror fiction, teen romances
and modern classics. As word got around that on Wednesday from 5.30pm
to 8pm you could keep dry and warm in the library with your mates, the
youngsters poured in - between 50 and 60 of them some nights. They gradually
became less rowdy and eventually a slightly smaller group made a regular
commitment. Ground rules were established for the Litherland Library Club
and nine months on, there were about 30 regular members.
James, 13, would come into the library anyway, he said, but less often
if the club did not run. He usually ends up in the adult history section
"because I like history and adventure: I usually read about the Tudors
and the Civil War and the plague and the fire."
Following the success of the NYR-funded Boox For Us project, organised
by the National Youth Agency and Well Worth Reading, the YouthBoox programme
was launched in 2000 with funding from the Arts Council of England's New
Audiences scheme. YouthBoox is a national programme exploring how to create
routes back into reading for socially excluded 13-19 year olds. It makes
reading more enjoyable and relevant by involving young people themselves
in shaping their interaction with reading. Run by the National Youth Agency
and The Reading Agency, it has taken place in 28 areas over the past five
years, working intensively with 300 young people. YouthBoox fuses the
skills and resources of youth workers and librarians. Youth workers bring
the people reach and skills, librarians bring rich creative reading resources,
a massive community infrastructure of buildings and ICT. YouthBoox has
been shown to:
- increase the depth and breadth of reading by reluctant young readers
- create a supportive atmosphere in which tackling literacy problems
arises naturally
- help young people feel more confident about visiting libraries
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YouthBoox - Young people
discover a passion for reading thanks to a partnership of libraries
and youthworkers - Literacy Today article (December 2000)
Youth workers and librarians unite
- Literacy Today article outlining the partnership between
the Youth Service and libraries (March 2000)
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"In Cramlington, one young woman's
reading age shot up by 2.9 years, another's by 1.5 years and the
rest by 1 year. The one with the most improvement is the one who
was the most reading averse at the beginning of the project."
YouthBOOX Moving On Report, 2004 |
In September 2002, YouthBoox: Moving On, the next stage of the initiative
began, focusing on socially excluded young people with low reading ability.
Working in partnership with the National Youth Agency the the Basic Skills
Agency, the project worked in four boroughs where libraries were linked
to youth services: Shropshire, Richmond, Kensington and Chelsea, and Essex.
For further information about the YouthBoox programmes, email Ruth Harrison
at The Reading Agency at ruth.harrison@readingagency.org.uk
or visit www.readingagency.org.uk.
Boox
for Us - breaking down prejudices - from the TES archive
Boox. Magazine on books, written by teenagers for teenagers, and
an excellent resource for hooking teenagers into the reading habit.
Contact: Well Worth Reading, 15 Quarry Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO23
0JF. Tel: 01962 865 102.
The Reading Kit. A pack for librarians and youth workers working
in partnership, produced as a result of the NYR-funded Boox For Us project.
Contains background information; lessons from the project; tips on getting
started, keeping going and measuring success; how to create a young-person-friendly
library; and further contact details.
Contact: Sales Department, National Youth Agency, 17-23 Albion Street,
Leicester LE1 6GD. Tel: 0116 285 3709.
The Boox website has information both for reading practitioners
and young readers. www.boox.org.uk
Boox For Us
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